The message

While the blog is still shiny and new we thought it would be worth revisiting the newspaper's original mission statement from 4 December 1791. Just to make sure all of our core values are upheld, and to keep us on-message.

A plunge into the labyrinthine depths of Observer Towers unearths the following, from Observer issue number one:

"AT A PERIOD, eminently distinguished for the most bold and masterly productions of Genius; for the most polished refinements in Art; and for the most majestic expansions of Science, little encouragement can be expected, to institutions of any kind, which have not, for their animating principles, THE MORAL AND RELIGIOUS ADVANTAGES OF SOCIETY.

Conscious of these important truths, the Proprietors of The Observer have determined upon a variety of Arrangements, which from their intrinsic qualities, as well as from their adventitious importance, they flatter themselves, will not fail to attach, in preference to any similar publication, the approbation of a people, not less eminent for their liberal rewards of merit than for their ample powers of discrimination."

So not much has changed then, except perhaps the dutiful nod to religious authority. And the use of commas. Those Enlightenment types liked their commas.